Bengaluru, Sept. 30 -- Tata Consultancy Services Ltd's struggle to sell artificial intelligence (AI) services and products to clients is back in the spotlight, even as the legacy offshoring business grapples with uncertain demand and barriers in the US, its largest market. Siva Ganesan, who took over as AI.Cloud business head in July 2023 at India's largest software services provider, quit earlier this month, according to two people aware of the matter. His exit followed the appointment of company veteran Amit Kapur to lead its new AI unit. Two bosses for its AI business in a little more than two years reflect TCS's uncertainty regarding the new technology, especially since the business itself was overhauled at least three times in the past three years. The Mumbai-based company is also laying off 12,200 mid- to senior-level executives, or 2% of its workforce, to make itself "future ready". "It appears that TCS is lagging its peers on this issue and is making changes to address this market gap," said Peter Bendor-Samuel, founder of Everest Research. "TCS does not yet grasp how to drive to the new AI operating model and how to get their clients to also go on this journey." TCS stares at the risk of falling behind in the Indian AI services market that, according to Boston Consulting Group, is estimated to be an opportunity worth $17 billion by FY27. Accenture Plc, which has overlapping markets and client base with homegrown peers, has already started to deliver results from its AI teams. Mint's emailed queries to TCS on September 13 and September 24 remained unanswered. The focus is back on AI even as the IT services sector faces increasing scrutiny in the US. President Donald Trump hikes the fee on H-1B work visas, predominantly used by technology firms, from around $1,000 to $100,000, threatening India's $283-billion information technology (IT) services sector. An uncertain demand environment has already forced the company to cut back on hiring AI talent. "This year, demand in general is low and our hiring of AI engineers will not be as high as last year," said the first executive quoted earlier, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Last fiscal, TCS had hired around 1,000 engineers with AI expertise, according to the executive. "There are not as many skilled people in the market. Even if the company wants to hire more, there is a deficit of such talent."...